Investigator: Hein could give no reason why she put newborn in toilet

Amanda Hein to face trial for homicide in death of her son.

Amanda C. Hein, who is accused of killing her newborn baby after secretly… (Contributed Photo, THE…)

October 28, 2013|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

She cried. She talked of suicide. She said she belonged in jail. At one point, she broke down and just screamed.

Interrogated by investigators a day after her newborn was found dead in the toilet tank of a Lower Saucon Township pub, Amanda C. Hein admitted the boy was born alive and couldn't explain what she had done, township police officer James Connell testified Monday.

"She couldn't give a reason as to why she put it in the bag and put it in the toilet," Connell said during the preliminary hearing of Hein, 27, of Allentown.

"She couldn't give a reason as to why she did it, just that she was scared," Connell said.

After hearing his testimony and that of Northampton County coroner Zachary Lysek, District Judge David Tidd ruled enough evidence exists for Hein to face trial for homicide — a charge that could bring the death penalty if prosecutors pursue a first-degree murder conviction in a case that has captured international attention.

Hein is accused of keeping her pregnancy secret from those around her, giving birth in the stall of Starters Pub on Route 378, then returning to her friends and watching the hourlong conclusion of the pay-per-view wrestling tournament for which they came.

On Aug. 19, cleaners found the infant's body after the toilet wouldn't flush. Opening the tank, employees uncovered a boy of 33 to 36 weeks' gestation wrapped in a plastic bag that had lined a small garbage can in the stall, authorities say.

Monday's testimony featured stark and often disturbing details. Hein, who wore a red prison jumpsuit and her dyed-blond hair in a ponytail, kept her eyes downcast throughout, her head dropping lower and lower as the hearing progressed.

Chief Public Defender Michael Corriere entered a plea of not guilty on his client's behalf. In questioning Lysek and Connell, he raised the possibility that the baby may not have been born alive, asking whether the umbilical cord — which authorities say Hein acknowledged tearing with her own hands — could have been broken during birth.

"We're not ruling that out," Corriere said after the hearing.

When the bag containing the baby's body was discovered, it was initially thrown in the garbage without anyone looking to see what it contained, Connell said. But the pub's manager soon opened it to check, with police arriving to find the bag on the counter by a sink, the boy "kind of rolled up in a ball" and facing to one side, Connell said.

Staff reported that blood was found throughout Hein's booth and in trails that followed her path in the pub, though almost all of it had been cleaned up the night before, Connell said.

Hein believed she delivered the placenta after she returned to her Allentown home, Connell testified, where she said she wrapped it in clothing that she threw in the trash can outside. But by the time authorities checked the garbage, Connell said, it had already been collected by the city.

Lysek said the baby's cause of death was suffocation, and there was no water found in his lungs. The newborn was a viable "fully developed child, close to full term," he said.

According to court records, the 5-foot-2, 160-pound Hein said she had known she was pregnant since May or June but did not disclose it to anyone. She was identified by police through the pub's reservation records, which led them to a friend of hers who was with her that night.

Connell said that on Aug. 20, he knocked on Hein's N. Seventh Street door and was told she was sleeping. After Hein was awoken, she said she didn't want to talk at the house, which is her stepmother's, Connell said.

"She stated that nobody knew what was going on," Connell said.

After taking Hein to the Lower Saucon police station, Connell said he interviewed her after giving her Miranda warnings against self-incrimination. Hein was "upset, crying" and claimed she had considered committing suicide the night before, Connell said.

"At one point, she did have an outburst of just screaming," Connell said.

Lysek, who questioned Hein after police had finished, said he asked her why she decided to leave the boy in the tank of the toilet, instead of calling someone for help, or even placing him in the garbage.

"She would not answer that question," Lysek said.

In a September interview with The Morning Call, Hein's mother, Karen H. Giesen of Coopersburg, said she wonders why her daughter didn't confide in her. Giesen called Hein "fragile, very fragile," and said she suffered from "very severe depression" that became noticeable with the onset of puberty.

Giesen and Hein's stepfather, Raymond F. Giesen, attended Monday's hearing, which was held at the county courthouse in Easton. As they were leaving, Karen Giesen shielded her face with her coat as her photograph was snapped by news photographers.

According to Karen Giesen, her daughter had been hospitalized in the past for mental-health problems and also struggled with substance abuse.

After her interview with investigators, Hein also ended up in the hospital.

Connell said he took Hein to St. Luke's University Hospital-Fountain Hill because she complained she was "still actively bleeding." Once at the facility, Hein signed herself in for a psychiatric evaluation, and she remained hospitalized when she was charged six days later, he said.

In the meantime, Lysek said, he has been preparing birth and death certificates for the boy, who the coroner said was never named as far as he knows. His office, Lysek said, has been referring to the infant as "Baby Boy Hein."

"Is that how it will be listed on the death certificate?" District Attorney John Morganelli asked.